Donetsk, Aug 22 – DAN. Donetsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre is going to open its 87th season with six premiers including Andrew Lloyd Webber's world famous Phantom of the Opera. The theater's director Evgeniy Denisenko said the unprecedented interpretation combines ballet and opera.

Other premiers are Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty ballet and Queen of Spades opera; Carmina Burana scenic cantata by Carl Orff; Lo Speziale (The Apothecary) opera buffa by Joseph Haydn; La Bayadère (The Temple Dancer) ballet by Ludwig Minkus.

The Phantom of the Opera is a musical based on the eponymous French novel by Gaston Leroux with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. The musical opened in London's West End in 1986, and premiered Broadway in 1988. It won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, and Michael Crawford (in the title role) won the Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Musical. It has been seen by over 150 million people in 151 cities across 30 countries. *ot